Reading Eagle: Bill Uhrich |
Paul Werley peeks over the top of a hay bale blind while protected from the rain by an umbrella Monday during opening day of deer season on the Ontelaunee Township farm of his son Travis Werley.

Reading Eagle: Bill Uhrich |
Paul Werley shelters in a hay bale blind while protected from the rain by an umbrella Monday during opening day of deer season Monday in Ontelaunee Township.

Reading Eagle: Bill Uhrich |
Oneil Quinones Jr., left, and Manny Molina, both of Reading, head back into the woods at Kindt's Corner near Lake Ontelaunee on Monday after taking a break from the rain with some lunch in their truck.

Reading Eagle: Bill Uhrich |
Mike Ermold of Shoemakersville tolerates the rain Monday as he hunts during the first day of deer season at Lake Ontelaunee.

Reading Eagle: Bill Uhrich |
First Day of Deer Season Mike Ermold of Shoemakersville tolerates the rain Monday as he hunts during the first day of deer season at Lake Ontelaunee. Photo by Bill Uhrich 11/26/2018

Reading Eagle: Jim Lewis |
Bailey Unterkofler, 14, of Centre Township on the first day of rifle deer season on Monday.

Reading Eagle: Jim Lewis |
Ted Meade of West Penn Township, Schuylkill County, with his buck on the first day of rifle deer season.

Rain no problem for deer hunters in Berks

It started to rain soon after Kortnei Guzanowski, a 31-year-old Philadelphia bartender and Berks County native, shot her first buck Monday, the first day of firearms deer season in Pennsylvania, but the drizzle couldn't mask her tears from her father when they found the fallen animal.

They tracked it to a creek near a blind in rural Schuylkill County where Guzanowski, a bow hunter, fired her arrow.

"She was bawling her eyes out," said Rory Guzanowski, her father. "It was an emotional thing the first time around, which it should be."

The rainy weather that dominated opening day did not stop Kortnei and other hunters from venturing into the woods and fields on what is the most popular day of deer season.

Opening day draws the largest crowds of the 12-day season, which ends Dec. 8, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Last year, about 45 percent of the season's 163,750 harvested bucks were taken on opening day.

For Kortnei, opening day brought her home to Penn Township, spending the night with her family before reaching her hunting spot around 8:45 a.m. Three hours later, she felled her first buck, a five-pointer, then frantically called her father, still at home, on her cellphone.

By the afternoon, the two were standing in Horst Butcher Shop in Marion Township, watching the butchers cut up her prize. Hooks and hoses hung from racks in the whitewashed block building at the rear of a farm, and the remnants of a pot of coffee sat on a ledge above a couple mugs.

Kortnei saved the pelt, planning to turn it into a rug.

"It was honestly the most amazing thing I've ever done," she said. "I never felt anything like this before."

Other local hunters bagged bucks quickly, beating the rain or braving it. Does could be bagged Monday in parts of Berks and Lehigh counties and all of Montgomery and Chester counties, areas that lie within the Game Commission's Wildlife Unit 5C and 5D.

Bailey Unterkofler, 14, didn't let the weather stop her from hunting. She hunted from an enclosed shed near woods on her family's Centre Township property, arriving at 5:45 a.m.

Soon several does passed by, followed by a seven-point buck.

"It was like Christmas morning: She said, 'It's a buck! It's a buck!' " said Daniel Unterkofler, her father. Bailey fired, hitting it in the head. She caught her prize by 7:15 a.m., texting her accomplishment to her school friends.

By the afternoon, she stood inside Sadler's Custom Butchering in Bethel Township, beneath a mounted deer head on one wall, ordering hot dogs from the meat - her favorite venison treat.

"Hunting is like a challenge," Bailey said. "It takes skill. It's like golf: You don't master it right away."

Ted and Debbie Meade of West Penn Township, Schuylkill County, were in the woods at their hunting stands by the time it started to rain Monday. Rain can persuade deer to remain bedded down, and the Meades hoped the weather wouldn't stop deer from moving around.

It didn't. Ted shot an eight-pointer, which the couple took to Sadler's for butchering.

Debbie plans to hunt again Saturday.

"I'm just happy we're getting meat in the freezer," she said.

Kortnei's opening day was so good that she's planning future hunting trips. Rain? No problem.